Claire Cain Miller and Brian Stelter have a must read piece in the New York Times about net neutrality in which they note the palpable silence from media companies like Comcast and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

Barry Diller -- "who oversees Expedia, Ticketmaster, Match.com and other sites" – comes out swinging in the Times story against a proposed compromise by Google and Verizon calling the deal a "sham."

Right-wing media have falsely claimed that the Net neutrality principle supported by the Obama administration is an attempt by the government to control Internet content. In fact, net neutrality does not mean government control of content on the Internet; rather, net neutrality ensures equal and open access for consumers and producers of content and applications, and is supported by a wide array of groups including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Christian Coalition of America.

Perhaps no one in the national media has done more to muddy the issue of net neutrality than Glenn Beck, a News Crop employee:

How long will it be until News Corps honcho Rupert Murdoch goes after those using the word "My" because of MySpace or Disney because its animated classic The Fox And The Hound has the word "Fox" in its title?

The Telegraph's Rupert Neate reports that Murdoch's BSkyB "has been ensconced in a legal battle with Skype for more than five years" because "because customer[s] might assume that 'Skype' is part of Sky."

A spokesman for Sky, which is 39.1pc-owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, said the company was trying to prevent Skype from using its trademark in relation to the sale of TV or internet service, because customer might assume that 'Skype' is part of Sky.

"Sky is involved in a long-running dispute with Skype in relation to several trade mark applications filed by Skype, including, but not limited to, television-related goods and services," the spokesman said. "The key contention in the dispute is that the brands 'Sky' and 'Skype' will be considered confusingly similar by members of the public."

[...]

Sky said it has taken legal action against a string of companies for attempting to piggyback on the "Sky" brand.

Back in April, I wrote about News Corp and Fox News' love/hate relationship with the LGBT community:

It's no secret that Fox News doesn't live up to its "fair and balanced" slogan, especially when one considers its coverage of the LGBT community. In fact, much of its coverage is openly antagonistic and downright homophobic. On issue after issue of importance, the network, its hosts, anchors, contributors, and guests offer up lies, misinformation, and right-wing spin that only further stigmatizes the gay and lesbian community.

A review of Fox News' employment practices however, reveals a network at odds with its own homophobic public image.

[...]

According to an examination of the Human Rights Campaign's (HRC) employer database, News Corp. (Fox News' parent company) has had a policy protecting employees from discrimination based on sexual orientation since at least 2005 and has offered health care benefits to same-sex partners since at least 1999. Time Warner (CNN's parent company) and General Electric (NBC/MSNBC's parent company) offer not only these basic protections to gay and lesbian employees, they appear to go even further.

The HRC's Corporate Equality Index rates Time Warner and General Electric with 100 percent and 80 percent, respectively, while News Corp. has yet to complete the survey that HRC uses to establish its index. News Corp. would give us a better understanding of how it treats LGBT employees on a variety of other important issues by completing the survey, but the media company does deserve credit for at least offering some very basic protections and benefits for gay and lesbian employees.

Lack of a Corporate Equality Index rating notwithstanding, News Corp. has taken its support for LGBT employees a step further by sponsoring the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) which describes itself on its website as "an organization of journalists, media professionals, educators and students working from within the news industry to foster fair and accurate coverage of LGBT issues." In fact, the program from the organization's annual conference last fall in Montréal included an ad from News Corp. stating: "The networks of Fox News honor NLGJA for its commitment to fair and balanced reporting. From your friends at Fox News Channel, Fox Business, News Corporation."

[...]

That ultimately is what's truly sad about News Corp.'s relationship with its LGBT "friends." The media company gives its employees decent protections and benefits while making the lives of the very same employees more difficult in the long-run by broadcasting homophobia and misinformation that harden anti-LGBT views and slow the movement for full equality under the law.

Evidence of this love/hate relationship couldn't be clearer of late, especially for those watching the right-wing network in the days following Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling that California's Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.

As Media Matters noted this week:

FoxNews.com did not note that Walker was nominated as a federal judge by Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. But in reports on Judge Susan Bolton's decision to block portions of the Arizona immigration law, it did note that President Clinton nominated Bolton.

FoxNews.com hosted a post on the Fox Forum by Gerard V. Bradley that questioned Walker's "fitness to preside" because he is purportedly in a stable same-sex relationship.*

As The Daily Show's Jon Stewart pointed out, Fox News host Neil Cavuto claimed the decision would be costly because same-sex couples would be entitled to spousal benefits if married while Fox News contributor Sarah Palin appearing on Hannity (who hadn't read the ruling) attacked the "third branch of government" for striking down the proposition.

What must the LGBT employees at News Corp and Fox News think of their employer's attacks on the landmark, detailed, 136 page ruling?

To be fair, you may be looking for the "love" part of the "love/hate" relationship in this particular story. It should be noted that Margaret Hoover -- a Fox News contributor and the great-granddaughter of President Herbert Hoover – is on the advisory board of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which spearheaded the legal challenge against Proposition 8 leading to this decision.

Bidding for the suddenly resurgent baseball franchise will begin at $307 million, but a winning bid may be $100 million higher -- or more.

It could not be learned if News Corp., whose Fox Sports Southwest unit owns television rights to the team, would bid independently or as part of a group.

News Corp. may add its name to the list of wannabe owners of the suddenly competitive Texas Rangers baseball team.

There are several other potential bidders, including a group led by Hall of Famer and Rangers team president Nolan Ryan and a group led by Mark Cuban, the owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks.

It wouldn't be Murdoch's first foray into athletics. I highlighted the following report from The Independent in May:

Rugby club Melbourne Storm, which is owned by Murdoch's News Limited, has been at the centre of a major scandal, after players were found to have been receiving secret payments to stay at the club. This contravenes Australia's strict salary cap rules, and Murdoch has been fined a A$500,000. How many more fines can a magnate afford?

As a result of the scandal, the Storm was stripped of its "2007 and 2009 championship titles" as well as "three minor titles from 2006-08."

UPDATE: Accoring to another Postreport, "News Corp. announced Tuesday it will not be submitting a bid for the Texas Rangers."

Something tells me Murdoch won't be importing the anti-Muslim/Islam hysteria found almost daily on Fox News stateside to this new venture.

The Daily Show's Jon Stewart did a send-up of Fox News' anti-Muslim tendencies earlier this week:

You can find a great deal more here about the right-wing network's history of making controversial assertions about Muslims -- often by baselessly branding them as "terrorists" or "terrorist sympathizers" -- calling for profiling, or equating Islam and all of its adherents with radical extremists who claim to act in its name.

Beliefnet, the multi-faith-based news and discussion site, has laid off a "great number" of staffers today in advance of News Corp.'s sale of the company to BN Media, paidContent has learned. An announcement is expected this afternoon. Representatives from News Corp (NSDQ: NWS). and Beliefnet did not return calls seeking comment.

Last May, AllThingsD reported that News Corp., which acquired the site in 2007, was shopping it around. Back in October, Steve Waldman, who cofounded the site in 1999 and stayed as president and editor-in-chief after the sale, left the company to take a post with the FCC. The exact number of the Beliefnet staffers being let go wasn't clear, nor was the sale price. We will update when we have more details.

In April 2009, former Facebook exec Owen Van Natta was hired to replace MySpace's founding CEO Chris DeWolfe. Then last February, MySpace canned Van Natta and promoted insiders Mike Jones and Jason Hirschhorn to co-presidents. Now, Hirschorn is making his exit from the company, leaving Jones to carry the ball as a solo act.

We've repeatedly noted that Murdoch is a mess when it comes to the internets. Perhaps he should just stick to propping up unprofitable newspapers and political television programming disguised as cable news.

The despicable premise of the story is that Home Depot is somehow helping to recruit kids for the "homosexual lifestyle" with it's "children's craft workshops" at various LGBT pride events this summer. As I said in the post from earlier today:

I hate to break it to Schilling and the [American Family Association], but LGBT people do have children. The notion that such activities at LGBT Pride functions might be an effort to "introduce children to the homosexual lifestyle" is vile bigotry intended to perpetuate the bogus myth that LGBT people are recruited into some sort of cult hell bent on advancing "the gay agenda."

By offering a link and write-up of WND's latest homophobic screed, Fox Nation is promoting an organization -- the AFA -- that thinks too many Indian-Americans are winning spelling bees and that gay sex is tantamount to domestic terrorism.

It is just another example of Fox News' love/hate relationship with the LGBT community, which I wrote about in detail this past April, concluding:

That ultimately is what's truly sad about News Corp.'s [Fox News' parent company] relationship with its LGBT "friends." The media company gives its employees decent protections and benefits while making the lives of the very same employees more difficult in the long-run by broadcasting homophobia and misinformation that harden anti-LGBT views and slow the movement for full equality under the law.

The Times, the London newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., is offering free tickets to Toy Story 3 or a weekend at the Grosvenor Hotel in Dorset in an effort to persuade readers to pay for news online.

The newspaper this week began closing down its free website and will charge for access, mirroring a long-standing practice at the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal. The New York Times Co. plans to do the same next year. Both concede the step will mean fewer readers. A drop in advertising revenue is forcing them to seek other, more steady, sources of income.

[...]

Murdoch's News Corp., which this week offered to buy the rest of U.K. pay-TV operator British Sky Broadcasting Plc for 7. billion pounds ($11.5 billion), is pushing a business model with clients paying for content as a driver of revenue growth. He's using that same strategy at the Times and the Sunday Times. The Times is now offering paying subscribers access to free events and discounted products through its 'Times+' service in an effort to build customer loyalty.

[...]

Still, any paywall strategy risks cutting newspapers off from an ecosystem of blogs and social media sites that was created partly by the availability of free content.

Rather than offering up movie tickets and other giveaways, I would have gone with offering consumers some straight-forward reporting based on the facts throughout all of his media outlets. Why stop with newspaper content? What about cable news? Anyone with basic cable in the U.S. pays for Fox News so why not start there? Rather than "Fair & Balanced" he could call it "Fact Checked, We Pinky Swear."

Given Glenn Beck's passion for finding hidden connections -- no matter how trivial or tangential -- it failed him big time tonight on his Fox News show. He apparently did not realize, as Think Progress noted, that the Saudi prince he attacked tonight, Al-Waleed bin Talal, is the largest stakeholder in News Corp outside the Murdoch family. Beck referenced the aid Al-Waleed offered the United States after 9-11 and said, "You already sent us help. And you flew that help into the trade centers."

Beck was defending Israel over the flotilla situation by creating a hypothetical example of Saudi Arabia seeking to park a boat full of its citizens on the Hudson River in the days after 9-11. (Yes, it was as stupid as it sounds.) Beck said the U.S. would be "insane not to" act as Israel did toward the hypothetical Saudi Arabian boat. He then said:

Didn't we almost do that? Do you remember what happened after 9/11 with Rudy Giuliani?

Saudi Arabia came and said we want to help. This guy [Al-Waleed] came over and said I want to give you a $10 million check. Rudy Giuliani said you see that over there? I don't think we want your help. You already sent us help. And you flew that help into the trade centers.

The same prince later blamed policy for the attacks. Giuliani said take your check. We don't want your money.

So how does News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch plan on instituting the paywall for publications like the Wall Street Journal and New York Post? By getting your credit card number.

Joe Flint of the Los Angeles Times' Company Town blog reports (emphasis added):

News Corp. Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch, whose holdings include the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, explained in an interview with his Fox Business Network how he plans to get people to pay for content online. It doesn't sound too complex.

Said Murdoch: "Simple. You turn them off. They've got to sign on. They give you their credit card number. And that's it. And then you e-mail them and say you're putting the price up or you're taking it down or whatever."

Just this week News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch admitted that his media empire had made some "big mistakes" since purchasing the once leading social network MySpace.

Here's another one of those "big mistakes."

If one were going to break big news on a social network, wouldn't it be a good idea to break said news on one's own struggling social network rather than promoting another rival network?

Not so, at least when it comes to News Corp's Wall Street Journal. The New York Observer's Media Mob blog reports:

When Times Square was evacuated earlier this afternoon, The Wall Street Journal "checked in" to the area on Foursquare with a news alert: "Portions of Times Square have been evacuated after a report of a suspicious package."

This was the first time the Journal has used FourSquare to break news, according to a release.

The Journal even put out a press release. A press release! It could have just as easily said, "Sorry MySpace, even your own sister-companies don't find you relevant."

Perhaps he's just to busy waging war on the New York Times, but News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch made it clear this week that his media empire has no interest in purchasing Washington Post Co.'s Newsweek.

It's an interesting idea, but don't bet on it. A News Corp. spokesperson tells Yahoo! News that there are "no plans to bid" on Newsweek.

It's not too surprising that Murdoch isn't kicking the tires this time around, given that now he's dumping millions into the Journal, and last year unloaded a weekly magazine, The Weekly Standard, to fellow billionaire publisher Philip Anschutz. A source close to Anschutz tells Yahoo! News that the sports, entertainment, and media mogul isn't planning to bid on the beleaguered newsweekly, either.

If you're comparing the Times and the Journal, one significant advantage of the Times is its Sunday magazine supplement, offering longer, in-depth articles on a wide variety of subjects, stories akin to what you might find in The New Yorker or The Atlantic. In contrast, the Journal's WSJ Magazine offers fluffy stories on travel and fashion; it's completely dispensable. But if Murdoch bought Newsweek, he could tweak it into a hefty weekend magazine, one that would come with a recognizable brand. Plus, since the Weekend Journal is delivered on Saturdays, the reworked magazine would have the potential to scoop the Times'.

Perhaps rather than bundling Newsweek with the Journal, News Corp might be interested in bundling a detailed fact-check of the Journal.

While Newsweek's fate is far from clear, we can all breath a sigh of relief that Murdoch shows no interest in ruining yet another publication. After all, it's probably better to die a respectable death than it is to be propped up -- Weekend at Bernie's style -- by Murdoch's News Corp.

Last summer we brought you news that Rupert Murdoch -- chairman of News Corp, the parent company of Fox News -- was forced to pay big bucks to settle a hacking lawsuit. Romenesko summarized the sordid story:

...Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper subsidiary paid about $1.6 million to settle court cases involving allegations that its reporters worked with private investigators to hack into numerous public figures' cell phones. Murdoch tells Bloomberg News that's news to him. "If that had happened, I would know about it."

Well, Murdoch's media empire is shelling out big bucks for even more underhanded business practices -- this time centering on a Rugby team, the Melbourne Storm. The Independentreports:

Rugby club Melbourne Storm, which is owned by Murdoch's News Limited, has been at the centre of a major scandal, after players were found to have been receiving secret payments to stay at the club. This contravenes Australia's strict salary cap rules, and Murdoch has been fined a A$500,000. How many more fines can a magnate afford?

In addition to the fine, Murdoch's Melbourne Storm was stripped of it's "2007 and 2009 championship titles" as well as "three minor titles from 2006-08" according to a report from The Guardian.

With nearly a month to go before News International raises its first paywall in June, both Times Online and Sun Online have stopped publishing their user numbers through the ABC in the UK.

March monthly figures for UK newspaper sites were issued Thursday - but both Murdoch sites are absent.

ABC confirmed to paidContent:UK that it is still auditing the publisher's traffic numbers - but it is keeping the figures private at News International's request and, at present, publication is not due to resume next month.

This means it will be hard to see exactly how many readers Times Online will lose when it starts charging £1 a day and £2 a week starting June.

The thinking goes a little something like this: If people know how many users currently visit your website and they find out how many users continue to visit your website once the paywall goes up, then they will be able to determine precisely how successful (or not) your decision to put up that paywall was in the first place.

The New York Times was forced to issue two corrections after relying on Capitol Hill anonymous sourcing for its flawed report on emails from former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The Clinton debacle is the latest example of why the media should be careful when relying on leaks from partisan congressional sources -- this is far from the first time journalists who did have been burned.

Several Fox News figures are attempting to shift partial blame onto Samuel DuBose for his own death at the hands of a Cincinnati police officer during a traffic stop, arguing DuBose should have cooperated with the officer's instructions if he wanted to avoid "danger."

Iowa radio host Steve Deace is frequently interviewed as a political analyst by mainstream media outlets like NPR, MSNBC, and The Hill when they need an insider's perspective on the GOP primary and Iowa political landscape. However, these outlets may not all be aware that Deace gained his insider status in conservative circles by broadcasting full-throated endorsements of extreme right-wing positions on his radio show and writing online columns filled with intolerant views that he never reveals during main stream media appearances.